After months of advertising, is your applicant roster still not complete? Do you often fall short when trying to fill a candidate pool? Want to shore up your agency’s existing talent pipeline, but not sure how? Nationwide offers five simple strategies for expanding your talent pool.

1. Develop Internal Talent

Every recruiter is, in a sense, doing advertising, and every advertiser loves a captive audience. Your captive audience comprises the people who already work for your organization. In this situation, the recruiter’s work is not about getting internal talent to apply for opportunities, but ensuring they are ready to apply. If your organization doesn’t offer staff leadership development, training, and mentorship programs, collaborate cross-departmentally to create them. Sometimes this is no more involved than gathering and indexing existing resources and training materials.

Want to build a talent pipeline that nationwide produces over four million educated, trained, and skilled job seekers each year? Partner with universities, community colleges, and trade schools to create internship and apprenticeship programs that offer a path to full-time employment. To ensure diversity and inclusivity, build relationships with minority-serving institutions, professional associations, and advocacy groups.

2. Enlist Staff to Help with Recruitment Advertising

Have you ever purchased anything solely on the advice of a friend? Word-of-mouth or referrals will always be among the most effective and low-cost recruitment advertising tools. That’s why it’s a great strategy to enlist the help of people who already work for you to advertise jobs. Ensure that all job ads posted on social media are shareable and encourage staff to share openings with their networks. Offer incentives for employees who refer successful candidates to the agency.

3. Modernize Job Marketing and Branding

We read thousands of job descriptions each year at Nationwide, usually when we are having trouble drifting off to sleep. We know that job descriptions or classification specifications (class specs) are boring. Filled with legalese and jargon, they usually can’t be changed without input from bargaining units and approval by the governing body. However, job ads can be written using engaging, accessible, inclusive language, without excessive government jargon. Good ads should go beyond pay and benefits to highlight community amenities (such as affordable housing, good schools, and ample outdoor recreation), career growth opportunities, and positive aspects of organizational culture. To comply with your agency’s practices or legal policies, you may still need to provide a link to the full job description or class specs in the job ad.

When you are not actively recruiting, you can enhance agency branding by showcasing success stories of employees who advanced within your organization. You may also post “day in the life” videos on social media to inform job seekers about the type of work they could be doing, your agency’s workplace culture, and how agency staff make a difference in the community.

4. Offer Structured Hybrid Remote Work Options

Have you noticed the recent uptick in major employers like Apple, Dell, and Disney enforcing a return to full-time work in the office? This trend may appear widespread, but a recent survey by Flex Index found that only 32% of companies have shifted to full return, while 25% are still fully flexible. Nearly 43% of companies allow structured hybrid work options. What is structured hybrid work? According to the report, “employees are not expected to be in the office full time, but there is a set expectation for how much time employees spend in the office.” Tech.com found that 72% of recruiters reported “hiring difficulties for companies requiring full-time office work.” So, structured hybrid schedules appeal to job seekers and offer a potentially powerful recruitment tool.

5. Overcome Legal & Political Barriers

When creating a plan to expand your talent pool, it’s crucial to focus on overcoming legal and political barriers. Ensure city/county managers and elected officials support Human Resources’ aim to grow its database of potential candidates. Involve leadership in the plan by soliciting their input on expanded outreach and innovative recruitment efforts.

Advocate for changes such as developing internal candidates, enlisting staff to help with recruitment, posting engaging job ads instead of the full job description, and offering structured hybrid work options.

By implementing these strategies, local government recruiters can attract, hire, and retain needed talent, even within bureaucratic constraints.

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